CAMBRIDGE POLICE DEPARTMENT

1996 ANNUAL REPORT

HATE CRIME

"Hate Crime" is the vernacular term for federal and state Civil Rights Violations. Hate crimes include any crimes principally motivated by hatred of another because of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, handicap status, or gender. All hate crimes would still be crimes even if the bias motivation were absent; therefore, each hate crime listed below is tallied elsewhere in this report, under assault, threats, and other headings.

In 1996, the Cambridge Police Department received 10 reports of crimes that could be classified as "hate crimes." These 10 reports included four aggravated assaults, two malicious destruction incidents, two threats to commit crimes, one episode of verbal harassment, and one robbery. Seven of them seem to have been motivated by race or national origin, two by religion, and one by sexual orientation.

These reports are synopsized below:

January 2, 1996, 8:20 p.m., on Harvey Street: Residents engaged in a verbal altercation over a parking space. During the fight, one resident began hurling racial epithets. He then ran into his house and emerged with a knife, which he brandished in a threatening manner.

 

January 11, 1996, 1:30 p.m., at Massachusetts Avenue & Garden Street: After a near-miss accident, a driver entered into an argument with two pedestrians. Both parties used racial epithets, and the pedestrians struck the driver's car with a bottle, damaging it.

 

January 30, 1996, 9:00 a.m., in the 1500 block of Massachusetts Avenue: The resident of an apartment received a threatening phone call from a stranger; the caller used a religious epithet.

 

April 12, 1996, 4:10 p.m., on Concord Avenue: A representative of a commercial establishment verbally harassed a patron, using racial epithets.

 

July 17, 1996, 3:00 p.m., on Hampshire Street: As part of an ongoing dispute, a man entered a business office, threatened an employee, and used a religious epithet.

 

July 25, 1996, 10:40 p.m., on Harvey Street: A resident was accosted on the street by a local woman who told him to go back to his country and who threw a rock at him.

 

August 9, 1996, 9:50 a.m., at the Cambridgeside Galleria: The victim was sitting outside the mall when the suspect, who was walking by, pulled a knife, waved it at the victim, and used a racial epithet.

 

September 6, 1996, 4:00 a.m., at Massachusetts Avenue & Pleasant Street: The victims, walking down the street, were approached by two suspects who taunted them with slurs about their sexual orientation. The suspects the pushed the victims to the ground and robbed them of their wallets.

 

September 10, 1996, overnight, on Massachusetts Avenue: An unseen person wrote racial epithets across the door of the victim's residence and on a nearby wall.

 

November 23, 1996, 5:25 p.m., on Cambridge Street: The victim was walking down the street when four suspects pulled up in a car and began shouting racial epithets. One of the four jumped out of the car and attacked the victim with a stick.

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